


Of Mice and Humans.

by demonsonthemoon



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Based on a True Story, Gen, I was in a communist group in college last year and we did share the room with a bunch of mice, they were really cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 12:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5417609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonsonthemoon/pseuds/demonsonthemoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a normal meeting for Les Amis de l'ABC.</p><p>Until two random strangers popped in, pushed everyone out of the room and started cleaning it.</p><p>They were a few minor freak-outs, some of them involving pet mice names Scribbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Mice and Humans.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very riduculous very self-indulgent one-shot based on a true story involving communist groups and college and mice. IDK.

“Oh my god, I can't believe this. I can't futzing believe this.”

Enjolras let himself be pushed out of the room alongside eir friends, and watched through the doorway as a student ey didn't know pulled out latex gloves from his rucksack.

“Um,” ey started, looking at the others standing next to him and getting only confused shrugs in response. “Who are you again?”

The student didn't raise his head from where he was putting chairs up on the table.

“That's Joly. He's a med student.”

Enjolras turned around so quickly that part of eir blond ponytail smacked Courfeyrac in the side of her face. Another stranger was looking at him with a bright smile.

“I'm Bossuet. Law school.”

“Eeek!!!” Joly shrieked from inside the room.

Everyone turned around and watched him standing still and pale-faced, as if frozen in fear.

“I think he found Scribbles,” Jehand said, smiling with half his mouth in a way that sent shivers down Enjolras' spine.

“Scribbles?” Bossuet asked.

Enjolras was interrupted in eir reply by another shriek from Joly.

“There are mice in here! I can't believe it. Actual living mice!”

Jehan chuckled. “Scribbles is the name of our mouse. Or mice. We never managed to be sure whether there were more than one. They're kind of really cute, actually.”

“What is he doing, though?”

Enjolras was still watching Joly as the med student inspected the room the goup of friends had been occupying. There had been six of them before the strangers barged in: Enjolras, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Jehan, Bahorel and Cosette. They had only had time to go over the plan for today's meeting before being thrown out. And now here they were.

Enjolras jumped as Courfeyrac put a hand on eir shoulder.

“I think he's trying to clean up.”

Enjolras raised eir eyebrows. Their meeting room was small, and they shared it with the university's feminist group. It was overflowing with boxes of flyers and archive folders, as well as posters and all kinds of forgotten things. After witnessing mold growing on the sponge that was lying in the old sink, the members of Les Amis de l'ABC had simply given up and accepted their place in the ever more complex ecosystem that was developping there.

“Is he serious?” Enjolras felt obliged to ask. Bossuet just nodded with a good-natured smile.

“Well, he definitely has guts”, Jehan commented as Joly dropped a pile of flyers in the hallway, not sparing even a glance at the other students watching him.

“Shouldn't we be helping him?” Combeferre inquired, eyes on the flyers. He didn't move, though.

Joly took out a box of archive documents next.

By that time, the members of the ABC had started to shift from foot to foot, the situation finally downing on them.

“Well...” Cosette started saying. She was interrupted by a door closing loudly at the end of the hallway. All the students turned their heads towards the noise.

“Hi guys!,” a young woman shouted, pushing a strand of curly brown hair behind her ear before waving. “Sorry I'm so late. I had to do some copies of a book for my German class.”

“Hi, 'Chetta,” Bossuet said, walking up to the newcomer and pecking her on the cheek.

“Hi, hon,” Musichetta replied. “Hey darling,” she then added as Joly looked up from the bag he had just brought out of the room.

“Hi. Sorry, I'm busy.”

“I can see that.” She frowned worriedly for a second, then turned to Bossuet. He shaked his head and Musichetta turned back to Joly. “Can I help?”

“Um. Sorry to interrupt but...” Bahorel started from where he had been standing next to Cosette. “What the fuck? Who are they?”

“Oh! Didn't they introduce themselves? This is Bossuet and Joly. I invited them here. They're my boyfriends?”

All gazes turned towards Joly and Bossuet in one fluid movement. Joly didn't blink. Bossuet gave a little wave.

Musichetta sighed. “Did you really not explain why you were here at all?”

“They didn't ask,” Bossuet shrugged.

“We didn't really have time to...” Enjolras chimed in.

Musischetta turned to em. “Why are we standing in the hallway, by the way?”

The rest of Les Amis exchanged embarrassed looks.

“I forced them to get out,” Joly said. “This room is a health hazard. I'm pretty sure I'm risking my life just by standing here. For god's sake, 'Chetta, I saw at least two mice in there! You should have told me it was that bad! This is not something you deal with by spraying Febreze!”

“Hey,” Musischetta whispered, putting a hand on the med student's shoulder. At the same moment, Bossuet moved to reassuringly grip Joly's fingers between his. “I'm sorry. I didn't think. I didn't know it would make you this upset.”

“I'm fine,” Joly replied, eyes to the ground.

“How about we help you clean all of this?” Bossuet asked. “There are nine of us. It couldn't possibly take that long.”

“I'll call the Feminist Association's president, ask her whether she's okay with us moving their stuff.”

“Okay,” Enjolras replied, taking matters into eir hands. “While Courfeyrac does that, we can already take out everything that belongs to us and sort through it to see what we keep or don't.”

“We should keep at least two of each flyer and poster for the archive,” Combeferre continued. “But if the text is no longer relevant, we can throw the rest away.”

“I'll bring back a garbage bag,” Cosette announced. Just before taking off, she added: “There should be carboard boxes lying around for the things we can recycle.”

“I guess we'd better get going.”

 

 

Enjolras, Combeferre and Courfeyrac sat down in the hallway to sort through paper documents. The two formers did their best to ignore the confused looks thrown their way by passing students. Courfeyrac, on the other hand, used the current state of affair to try (and fail) at recruiting new members for their group.

“I swear sitting on the ground isn't mandatory! This is just some team-building thing!”

To be fair, her efforts were largely undermined by echoes of Bahorel's swearing as he and Jehan desperately tried to catch Scribbles. There had been three of them, in the end. There was also a loud argument between Joly and Jehan, since the latter insisted on keeping the mice while the former tried to convince him it was too much of a health hazard and that the animals probably couldn't be domesticated anyway. The med student let out a small cry of despair when Musischetta joined Jehan's side and agreed that someone had to take care of the rodents. The rest of the group busied themselves first with emptying all the shelves then scrubbing them and the floor until the whole room was spotless. Pairs of disposable gloves were handed out to take care of the various molding objects that had been forgotten over the years. Combeferre was very much interested in keeping the sponge for closer study. Enjolras nearly puked at the idea.

After two hours of vigorous cleaning, all members of Les Amis agreed that there was no purpose in having a meeting today. They instead walked together to a café not far from the college campus to have a well-deserved drink.

“Damn. I really hope that the feminists bake us some cookies as a thank-you.”

“That's kind of sexist, Courf,” Bahorel interrupted with a raised eyebrox.

“Sexist?!” she replied in indignation. “I'm just saying that Joëlle is a fantastic baker!”

Enjolras was too tired to participate in the debate and silently nursed eir chai tea instead. It was Combeferre who joined the discussion.

“If they do decide to thank us with baked goods, I say we give a good portion to Joly. He's the reason behind the whole thing.”  
“Speaking of reasons,” Cosette started, interrupting the conversation Joly, Bossuet and Musischetta were having with Jehan. “'Chetta was the one who invited you two, right? Do you want to join Les Amis de l'ABC?”

“Well...” Bossuet replied. He looked at Joly for a second and the other student shrugged. “We were kind of hoping to sit through one of your meetings before we officially join. And since we didn't actually get to do that today... I mean, you look like a great bunch of people but...”

“Don't worry,” Enjolras cut in. “You can just come back next week and hopefully we'll actually be working this time.”

Joly looked down at his mug of hot chocolate. “I'm sorry I threw you out like that. You don't even know me and I just freaked out on everyone.”

“It's fine,” Courfeyrac said, reaching across the table to pat him on the shoulder. “We needed to clean that place up anyway. We weere just putting it off out of lazyness.”

“And well,” Bahorel said with a wink. “At least you made a lasting impression!”


End file.
